heprocessofgoingthroughherarchiveinpreparationforourinterviewmadeherrealizehowher@practicescorrespondedtoherromanticcycles:YoucanseemypatternsofwhetherI’mtalkingback,likehowmany@repliesversusjustrandominternalmonologue,randomstuffonmypersonalaccount.Allthedropscorrelatewithbreakingupwithpeople

nearly2007,onlymonthsafteritsemergenceasauserconven-tion,Twitterincorporatedthe@user(withoutaspacebetweenthe<@>andtheusername)syntaxintotheplatform’sarchitec-ture,sothatthetext“@username”becamehyperlinked

@errand.”2Inablogpost,SagollarecallsthatthiswasapracticehehadimportedfromInternetRelayChat(IRC).3Afewdayslater,on24March,EvWilliams(@ev)markedhisbreakfastlocationbytweeting“breakfstburrito@herbivore.Mm!”4and,on28March,JackDorsey(@jack)usedthefullspelling“at”toaccomplishasimilarobjective,tweeting“atwork.”5ThatthreeofTwitter’searliestemployeesused<§>,or“at,”

Inaplatformdesignedtoannounceratherthanconverse

Grindr exerts effort like many “interface designs [to] encourage us to see forgetfully” (Wysocki & Jasken, 2004, p. 30). Although networked dat-ing apps like Grindr, Scruff, and Growlr have certainly increased queer individuals’ ability to locate and lust after each other, their opacity is concerning. Oscillating between Grindr’s built experiences and the pos-sibilities it both affords and restricts, the remainder of this article prob-lematizes Grindr’s interface, messaging system, advertising, and sub-scription model to bring forward its homoconnectivity (Figure 1, Grindr, n.d.). With an estimated 3.8 million daily users worldwide (Bucksense & Grindr, 2018), the sheer number of queer individuals’ perceptions be-ing shaped by Grindr and the unaccounted-for vulnerabilities that come with data extraction make this analysis an important entry point to chal-lenge the appification of queer lives.

homoconnectivity highlights how on-line spaces are key sites that mark a turn in capitalism’s techniques of power and locations of queer resistance. Scholars have debated how online users’ interactions function, if at all, in broader systems of com-modification and exploitation

Researchers have argued Grindr, due the app’s networked immediacy and the relative discreetness of cell phones, can challenge the heteronor-mativity of otherwise contextually “straight” spaces

geolocative

GotAIDSYet?SuchridiculinglanguagetargetedonlygaymenandnootherpopulationaffectedbyAIDSduringtheearlyyearsofthecrisis.Somegovernment-fundedresearchersfocusedonwaysto“fix”gaymenorseparatethemfromtherestofsociety.EarlyAIDSsocialresearchersfailedtoexploremanyactionsorbehaviorsthatledtoHIVinfection,focusinginsteadonwhatwaswrongwithgaymenthatcausedthemtoactinwaysthatledtoinfection(Watney,1994).Indoingso,researchersessentializedandnaturalizedthemedicalcrisis.Publicpolicyinitiativesattemptedtoidentifyandcontrolgaymenthroughtesting,tattooing,andquarantine.9Severalstatesintroduced,butdidnotpass,legislationforAIDSquarantinecamps.InNovember1983,aTexaslegislativecommitteerecommendedthatallhomosexualsbelockedupuntiltheyhadbeencuredofalltheirmedicalproblems-ordied(Murphy,1989).FewpersonscalledforlockinguphemophiliacsorIVdrugusers,otherpopula-tionsthatweredeeplyaffectedbyAIDS.

Itattemptstoshameorhumiliatethetargetintochanginghisorheractions.

Burkearguesthathumansorganizetheirdiscourseandactionsinaccordancewiththemajorpoeticformsofepic,tragedy,comedy,elegy,satire,burlesque,andthegrotesque

Eventhoughmostgayandstraightpeopledonotagreeaboutthemoralityorimmoralityofhomosexuality,thetwogroupssharemanycommonvalues

growing fan base), they show just how seductive social media is as a profile-boostingplatform, and that strategies of micro-celebrity can forge a loyal following

As‘ordinary’people seek andfind fame through practices of micro-celebrity, theyredistribute cultural power in both media and marketing:

elf-mediation was clearly possiblebefore the Internet era; for example, diaries preceded blogs, photo albums precededInstagram, and hardcopy scrapbooks preceded Facebook (

No longer does a person need to be familiar with complex coding languages or othertechnicalities to build Web sites, because virtually anyone can upload text, pictures andvideo instantly to a site from a personal computer or phone. With technological barrierscrumbling and its increasing ubiquity, the Web has become the perfect platform forpersonal branding. (2011, p. 3

multiperspectivalstanceoftheironist

antithesisandcomparison

Fromthebeginning,apparently,theword[irony]tendedtogetitselfattachedtoatypeofcharacter...ratherthantoanyonedevice

sometimesfreedomfromactingisasnecessaryasfreedomtoact

User-gen-erated derivatives abandon Crocker’s overtly emotional performance in favor of a cynical and ironic one.

The text includes, among other things, facts about Britney Spears’s life (for example, her two children) and the castigation of people criticizing fallen celebrities. More broadly, in this and other videos, Crocker wishes to convey the message that being gay and effemi-nate is a legitimate practice.

I use “stance” to depict the ways in which addressers position themselves in relation to the text, its linguistic codes, the addressees, and other potential speakers. As with form and content, stance is po-tentially memetic; when re-creating a text, users can de-cide to imitate a certain position that they find appealing or use an utterly different discursive orientation

understand-ing memes not as single entities that propagate well, but as groups of content units with common characteristics.

28chApter 3mysterious brotherhood. At first glance, “Kilroy Was Here” seems surprisingly similar to some contemporary Inter-net memes. For instance, it shares many features with “planking,” which basically involves people lying face down with their arms at their sides in public places (see figure 5), or “241543903/Heads in Freezers,”

“hypermemetic”

The word “meme” derives from the Greek mimema, signifying “something which is imitated,” which Dawkins shortened to rhyme with “gene.” Interestingly, a similar term to signify cultural evolution had appeared a cen-tury earlier. In 1870 the Austrian sociologist Ewald Her-ing coined the term “die Mneme” (from the Greek mneme, meaning memory), which the German biologist Richard Semon used in the title of a book he published in 1904. Un-aware of this existing terminology, Dawkins’s expression proved an accidental but successful imitation in itself: his concept survived and proliferated in the scientific world.

Since then, the meme concept has been the subject of constant academic debate, derision, and even outright dismissal.

He was in this unusual setting with a boisterous crowd and he found a way to make it work.

A lot of us did come tonight thinking this would be more of a solemn memorial service...butinstead, it turned it much more of a pep rally. It almost kind of–it seemed like a campaignrally. But I thought John was helpful by saying, you know, people–people in Tucson neededto cheer.61On NPR, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton explains that the audience rambunctious-ness is initially jarring but eventually community-building:

Maybe President Obama was saving the magic for a time when we really needed it. We’vebeen complaining for two years about the lack of music and passion in his big speeches.

boisterous enthusiasm.Yet over the course of the speech, Obama redirects that affect-emotion to be in concertalong another trajectory of social love that is non-partisan and at times civic-centered.

whenshewasthrownoutofakaraokebarbecauseshewasnowviewedasaprofessionalperforme

Underthestickinessmodel,companiesgaineconomicvaluebyofferingmerchandisethroughsomekindofe-commercecatalog,chargingforaccesstoinformation(throughsomekindofsubscrip-tionorservicefee),orsellingtheeyeballsofsitevisitorstosomeoutsideparty,mostoftenadvertisers.Suchadvertisingdealsaresoldbyjuxtaposingadvertisingmessagesonapagealongsidecontent,andadvertisingratesarebasedonthenumberofimpressionsapagegeneratesorthenumberofclicksanadreceives.Thisconceptionofstickinessfocusesonmonitoringandgeneratingspecificdataontheactionsofeachsitevisitor

Asy^>Ptheconcepthasevolved,itnowreferstoarangeofdifferentgroupsdeployingmediaproductionanddistributiontoservetheircollective*interests

ItreacheditsclassicalformwhenHenryFordinstalledthefirst^^assemblylineinhisfactoryin1913-Theassemblylinereliedontwoprin-n^*rfi^£*t*TT^V-ciples.Thefirstwasstandardizationofparts,alreadyemployedinthepro-ductionofmilitaryuniformsinthenineteenthcentury.Thesecond,newerprinciplewastheseparationoftheproductionprocessintoasetofsimple,repetitive,andsequentialactivitiesthatcouldbeexecutedbyworkerswhodidnothavetomastertheentireprocessandcouldbeeasilyreplaced./Notsurprisingly,modernmediafollowsthelogicofthefactory,not

Image-*editingprogramssuchasPhotoshopcanautomaticallycorreccscannedim-*ages,improvingcontrastrangeandremovingnoise.Theyalsocomewithfiltersthatcanautomaticallymodifyanimage,fromcreatingsimplevariationsofcolortochangingthewholeimageasthoughitwerepaintedbyVanGogh,Seurat,oranotherbrand-nameartist.Othercomputerprogramscanautomat-icallygenerate3-Dobjectssuchastrees,landscapes,andhumanfiguresaswell^pJyasdetailedready-to-useanimationsofcomplexnaturalphenomenasuchasfire^andwaterfalls.InHollywoodfilms,flocksofbirds,antcolonies,andcrowdsofpeopleareautomaticallycreatedbyAL(artificiallife)software.Wordpro-u.cessing,pagelayout,presentation,andWebcreationprograms

mediaobjectisnotsomethingfixedonceandforall,butsomethingthatcanexistindifferent,potentiallyinfiniteversions.

Anewmediaobjectisnotsomethingfixedonceandforall,butsomethingthatcanexistindifferent,potentiallyinfiniteversions.

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals, and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

Now what are these beliefs? First, we believe in equality for all and privileges for none. This is a belief that each American, regardless of background, has equal standing in the public forum ­­ all of us. Because we believe this idea so firmly, we are an inclusive rather than an exclusive party.

Republican President and I ask you that as you listen to these words of Abraham Lincoln

these speeches are misleading: George H.W. Bush’s speech in 1988 offered eloquence seldom

George H.W. Bush’s speech in 1988 offered eloquence seldom heard before or after from the famously inarticulate candidate

often setting the theme of a campaign. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s acceptance speech is where he pledged “a New Deal” in 1932; John F. Kennedy’s in 1960 proclaimed that “we stand at the edge of a new frontier.” It was his 2016 acceptance speech in which Donald Trump described a broken America and boasted: “I alone can fix it.”

the speech that stirs the listeners’ souls

and Twitter, launched when MySpace was at its peak, have resisted supporting animated GIFs, distinguishing their platforms from MySpace’samateur aesthetic.

GIF was under patent. License changes in 1999 led angry webmasters to believe they would be charged for simply hosting GIF files. In response, the League for Programming Freedom launched a ‘Burn All GIFs’ campaign, encouraging GIF users to switch to patent-free PNG files (short for ‘Portable Network Graphic’, though unofficially ‘PNG’s Not GIF’). The patentexpired in 2003.

Phenakistoscopes (1832), zoetropes (1834), and praxinoscopes (1877)offered primarily symmetrical and seamless loops, often illustrations of people or animals in motion.